COVERS, BOOKS, & JUDGES - BATMAN #200...

Copyright DC COMICS.  Cover NEAL ADAMS & IRA SCHNAPP

You've seen the above cover before on this blog, Crivs, but it was scanned from one of a trio of Neal Adams volumes featuring his Batman work for DC.  This time around, though, it's the actual published issue on display, which I acquired only recently so I thought I'd show you the real deal, plus a few interior pages to give you a taste of what it was like.  

You know the old saying, 'you can't judge a book by its cover' - well, never has that been more true than in this case as the contents are pretty mediocre in both writing and art, and any readers expecting anything different due to the striking Adams' cover were doomed to disappointment.  For an Anniversary ish, it should've been a lot better.

Written be Mike Friedrich, pencilled by Chic Stone and inked by Joe Giella, the comic was published in 1968, but when you compare it to what Marvel was producing at the time, it falls far short of the superhero shenanigans emanating from The House Of Ideas.  Number 200 should've been a significant issue story-wise, but sadly it was not to be.

Nice cover though.